Overprotective Fool
by CarlieD
Summary: “Alice grimaced toward her true love. ‘Overprotective fool.’” Eclipse, p. 569 Alice and Jasper hold an intimate discussion of Jasper’s actions during the newborn battle.


**OVERPROTECTIVE FOOL**

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"_Alice grimaced toward her true love. 'Overprotective fool.'" (Eclipse, p. 569) Alice and Jasper hold an intimate discussion of Jasper's actions during the newborn battle._

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THE PASSAGE THAT INSPIRED THE STORY:

_I couldn't tear my gaze away from the scene beside the fire. Jasper was rubbing absently at his left forearm._

_"Is Jasper all right?" I whispered._

_"He's fine. The venom stings."_

_"He was bitten?" I asked, horrified._

_"He was trying to be everywhere at once. Trying to make sure Alice had nothing to do, actually." Edward shook his head. "Alice doesn't need anyone's help."_

_Alice grimaced toward her true love. "Overprotective fool."_

_(Eclipse, ch.25 "Mirror", p. 569)_

A/N: Just a little bit of Jasper-Alice fluff to clear my head of a plot-bunny!

DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of Twilight.

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**I knew that he knew that I knew he was watching me. Eyes raking over every inch, looking for any trace of an injury. He wasn't going to find any from that distance.

"Do I have permission to come in yet?" he asked plaintively from the doorway. I had a flash of a vision, a snapshot of him carefully examining my neck.

I couldn't help but laugh. He was so predictable, this overprotective fool of mine. Even without my gift, I knew that he wanted to inspect me, make sure that I wasn't harmed in the fight. And I knew that until I told him he could, he wouldn't come in, even after over fifty years together.

"Jazz, this is your room, too. You don't need to wait for permission," I said patiently. "And before you even start –" I started to add, when his lips touched my ear and his breath tickled against my skin.

"Indulge me. Just for a little while." With that, he took my face in his hands and carefully twisted it to the side, concern leaking through his eyes. "Are you okay?" he asked, turning my face to the other side.

"I'm _fine_, Jasper. There's not a scratch on me," I said as he turned his attention to my neck. His fingers slid gently across my skin, pausing at the back of my neck as they found the incision I had tried so hard to mask.

"Liar," he whispered, voice shaky. "Let me see."

"I'm _fine_," I insisted, even as he was pushing aside my hair to see the wound more clearly. "Jasper, stop. Stop. I am not gravely wounded. I am not in pain. I'm not even uncomfortable. Enough." He ignored me, of course.

Predictable, overprotective fool.

"It doesn't sting?" he asked anxiously, fingers grazing along the injury. "God, Alice, that must hurt…"

"But it doesn't," I said evenly. Truth be told, it _did_ sting a little, but it wouldn't help the situation to admit it.

"That's deep," he persisted, a slight whimper escaping after his words. "Alice, that _must_ hurt."

"Jasper, enough," I said again. "You're overreacting."

"You're hurt," he repeated. "You're hurting and you're lying to me." His words were turning more and more panicked as time went on.

"Listen to me," I said firmly; his chin rested on my shoulder, head lolling to the side against my cheek as he reluctantly stopped tracing the wound. "I am not in pain. I'm not made of crystal and I am not going to break. It's just a little cut. A scrape, really. Barely even worth mentioning, which was why I didn't."

The little moan never actually left his throat, but I heard it still the same.

"Jasper…" I warned, as my mind caught the flash of us in our bathroom, his face twisted in pain as he dabbed at the wound with a facecloth.

"At least let me clean it, Lissy," he pleaded.

"No, Jasper, it's fine –" Seriously. Mountains out of molehills. A specialty of his…

Edward interrupted from the hallway just then. "_Please_, Alice, just let him! There are no such things as molehills in his mind when it comes to you! _Please_, just let him so I don't have to listen to him panicking all night!"

I growled softly at the doorway as Jasper pulled me towards the bathroom. _Feeding his insanity…_ "This is entirely unnecessary," I grumbled, letting him lift me up onto the countertop.

"You getting in the thick of it like that was entirely unnecessary," Jasper countered. "Tell me if it hurts." With that, I felt the first touch of the cloth's rough texture against my broken skin. "In fact, if you had just listened to me in the first place and stayed on the edges with Esme, this wouldn't have happened. Carlisle and Emmett and Rosalie and I had it under control –"

"Sure," I scoffed. "That's why that one newborn got a chunk out of your arm. Totally planned." I sighed impatiently. "If you're going to insist on cleaning it like I'm going into surgery, Jasper, then give your arm. Let me see how bad the damage is."

"It's fine," Jasper said automatically. He made an indistinct sound of protest when I reached back and grabbed his arm, pulling it around so that I could see it.

It hadn't been a clean bite, not by far. Of course, me yanking that newborn away while his teeth were still entrenched in Jasper's arm probably hadn't helped any. But his skin was slowly growing back over the wound, making another deep mark in the sea of scars. I could still see traces of silvery venom in the sinew, burning at him.

I sighed and looked up, looking for another cloth in the area.

"Head down, please, Alice," he said softly. "I can't see the wound properly."

"Oh, honestly, Jasper, I'm fine," I said impatiently as I ducked my head again. Eyeing the ruined tail of my shirt, I resigned it to the trash and tore off a strip, wetting it down. Then I settled his arm in my lap again, gently massaging the area around the wound to force the venom up to the surface.

His fist clenched and I heard him inhale sharply behind me. "I'll be as quick as I can, Jazz," I soothed, collecting the silvery liquid into the torn shirt. It took a few minutes to completely empty the wound of venom.

"Enough, Alice," he said, wrapping his other arm around my waist. "It'll be fine."

"Just let me bandage it," I comforted, wrapping some gauze around his arm tightly. "You know it'll heal faster and leave less of a mark if it's wrapped." Turning around to face him again, I took his face in my hands and kissed him. "I know it aches," I soothed, stroking his fair hair as his arms wound around me. His muscles were so tense… "Shhh… It's okay. It's all over, I'm right here…"

There was a soft moan of distress as his head sunk down to my shoulder, his face burying into my neck. "No, it's not," he murmured against my skin. "It's all starting again…"

"Jasper Whitlock, you listen to me," I said. "This is not the South, and this is not Mexico. You did only what was necessary to protect your family. Not for glory, not for infamy, not for territory or war or anything else. You protected your family." I kissed his exposed temple. "And I'm proud of you."

"Why? What's to be proud of, Alice?" he asked hoarsely. "I slaughtered them like they were nothing, like they were of no value to anybody. They had names. They had names and faces and families and feelings…"

"Because you're _mourning_ them, Jazz," I replied gently. "Because you don't like what you did. And because you know that you hated it, you won't do it again."

He straightened up slowly, a grateful smile breaking across his face. "What did I ever do to deserve you?" he asked as he scooped me up into his arms easily.

I smiled back happily as I saw him wrap me securely into those strong, muscled, scar-ridden arms, another anxious glance to the wound on my neck as I nestled close.

Silly, overprotective fool.


End file.
